033 – RESURRECTING THE EXTINCT

PLENTY OF PEOPLE HAVE HYPOTHESIZED about being able to bring back an extinct animal, but (so far as the MonsterTalk team knows) the only person who has successfully brought an extinct animal’s gene back to be able to express itself in a living organism is Dr. Andrew Pask and his team of genetics experts. Tasmania’s marsupial tiger, the Thylacine, appears to be extinct. But today MonsterTalk interviews Dr. Pask about his experiments, the best chances of resurrecting dead species, and what makes the Thylacine so interesting to evolutionary science.

(2021 update on Pask’s efforts. Spoiler: It’s still going to be a while before this could even be attempted. The science has improved but the monetary costs are still quite high, disregarding the challenging ethical questions.)

In this episode

• what is a Thylacine?
• how marsupials differ from eutherian mammals
• how to resurrect extinct DNA in a living animal
• how to bring an extinct animal back through genetics?
• could Thylacines still be extant?
• some misconceptions about Thylacines
• why Thylacines are important to evolutionary scientists
• also: check out Dr. Pask’s favorite monster: The terrifying Thylacoleo!

Music

• Monstertalk Theme: Monster by Peach Stealing Monkeys